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the real deal, chocolate covered orange

Seriously, if you ever had the slightest interest in the combination of chocolate & orange, you’re not going to get better than this. Get yourself some good quality chocolate though, like Valrhona or something, & some big, juicy, sweet organic oranges. Maybe even your sugar is organic, who knows. Just, it’s amazing.

It’s this amazing combination of the chewy, tangy, fresh orange rind which is wonderfully complimented by that creamy, bitter dark chocolate taste & just a hint of vanilla at the end.

Not going to lie, I’ve eaten about 20 of them already. I’ve even reserved some of the un-dipped rinds (the sans chocolate ones) which I’ll chop up & put into something else, like a cake or something.

The rest? Well, I’m going to have to force myself to wrap them up & give them away as gifts for Christmas otherwise I’ll end up consuming the lot!

Directions:
1. cut the oranges in half & juice them. (fresh orange juice for the whole family!). Using a spoon, scrape out the flesh from the inside of the orange peel, but leave the peel & pith (the white part) intact. Cut the remaining rind into strips of the desired length & thickness. Don’t go too thin with them as you don’t want them to be flimsy.
2. place the strips into a large pot & fill with cold water until the rinds are covered. Bring the water to a boil & allow to boil for 5 minutes, drain the water. Repeat this step 3 more times (4 times altogether). Strain the rind strips & set aside.
3. Put the sugar, vanilla bean powder & 500ml of water into the pot & bring to a boil. Once the mixture reaches 120C, add the orange peels back to the pot & reduce the heat down so the mixture simmers. You will want to boil the peels in the sugar mixture until they become translucent, this will take between an hour & an hour & a half. Make sure to check on them every 10 minutes or so & give them a good, but gentle stir. Once the rinds have become translucent, remove the pot from the heat. Be very careful at this point because boiling sugar burns BADLY!
4. using tongs, remove the strips one by one & place them on a wire cooling rack to dry. Make sure the strips do not touch otherwise they will stick together. Also, place a sheet of parchment under the rack as this will make cleanup easier.
5. The strips can take between 30 minutes & 3 days to completely dry, this will depend on the temperature outside & the humidity. You want them to be dry before you dip them in chocolate.
6. Place the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave & melt carefully. Once melted, dip the strips one by one & shake gently to remove excess chocolate. Place the dripped strips onto a piece of parchment until cooled & hardened. The quantity of chocolate recommended will dip half the strips.

Tip:
*** this recipe will yield a large quantity, it can easily be halved or doubled without issue. I chose to make a large quantity because it’s easy to give as gifts & they will keep without spoiling for several months.
*** do not skip the process of boiling the rind in water four times, it needs each & every time to remove the bitterness from the pith.

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6 thoughts on “the real deal, chocolate covered orange”

I love the combination of orange+chocolate very much! 2 years ago I made chocolate covered oranges as well…it was very nice but took hell lot of time! The recipe I followed suggested that alternatively to dipping them in chocolate, you can roll them in sugar (while the syrup still sticks). They were tasty as well!

It’s such a classic combination that you really can’t go wrong with it. Like you, I’ve seen a thousand recipes that suggest rolling them in sugar when they are still sticky. I opted to omit that step when putting together my version of this since the final product is already so sweet. It does give them an excellent aesthetic quality though when they are covered in sugar crystals.

The nice thing is that sugar acts like a preservative, since these are boiled in sugar for over an hour, they should keep for a good six months in an air tight container. Just keep them in a cool dark place & you’ll be perfect!

I love cooking, baking, and candy making……have been doing it for over 40 years. Wish I were in better health, I’d be running to the store for the ingredients! Maybe I can talk one of my relatives or friends into making these. Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite flavor combinations! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful treat!

Don’t do it! They are impossible to resist. Within two days of making them, they were all completely gone. Still…. you’re right, there is a lot of joy in candy making especially when there’s enough left over to share.